196 History of the English Landed Interest. 



kind of produce by the re-estabiisliment of the royal licence, 

 nor is there anything in the market returns of the year to 

 justify this action. Wheat, in fact, was about 7^. per quarter, 

 a price considerably lower than its average during the preced- 

 ing ten years. ^ 



This, however, was that fourth decade of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury so disastrous to the ecclesiastical landowners, and it is 

 probable that the cause of the phenomenon is to be found in 

 the disunited state of the landed classes. The ranks of the 

 great seignorial landowners were being terribly thinned by the 

 dissolution of the monasteries. The fresh proprietors would 

 not for a time be in touch either socially or politically with 

 the older landed gentry, while in contradistinction to this 

 breach in the seignorial ranks, the commercial classes were 

 rich, united, and fast growing in political importance. Just 

 ten years later we find heavy penalties attached to the trans- 

 port of native corn across the seas without licence, and those 

 who were detected in exporting from Bristol harbour so small 

 an excess as four quarters beyond what the}'- were entitled 

 to by licence, became liable to the forfeiture of both ship and 

 cargo,- The severity of this punishment proves how much 

 licences had been abused, and also how cautious we then were 

 of exporting more than the nation could spare. 



It was, however, by now beginning to be recognised that 

 the systems respectively of allowing exportation by licences 

 and of punishing illicit exportation by severe penalties were 

 a failure. The former gave opportunities to Crown officers for 

 peculation, and the latter, though continually increased in 

 severity, did not prevent an alarming scarcity, entirely caused 

 by excessive exportation of provisions. We must not omit to 

 take into account at this particular period the elfect of 5 and 6 

 Ed. VI. c. 14 on the prices of the home market. This severe 

 legislation against the practices of forestalling and regrating 

 almost entirely stopped the free circulation of corn within the 

 kingdom. Indeed, without sections 12 and 13 of the Act, 



^ Rogers' Agriculture and Prices, vol. iv. p. 259. 

 ' 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 9. 



